Braskem To Make Propylene From Ethanol

Brazil’s Braskem is taking another step in its efforts to derive chemicals from sugar cane. In September, it started up production of a 200,000-metric-ton plant in Brazil to make ethylene for subsequent conversion into “green“ polyethene.

Now the company plans to invest $100 million to make 30,000 metric tons per year of propylene from ethanol by the end of 2013. The company will use the propylene to make polypropylene that will have same properties as conventional hydrocarbon-derived propylene.

Late last year, Braskem signed a deal with Novozymes to develop a biotech route to propylene. However, the 30,000-metric-ton plant will not be based on this technology. At a press conference at the K 2010 plastics fair, the company called the plant‘s technology “proprietary“ and would give few details. However, a possible route that company officials have alluded to in the past is to use ethanol derived ethylene to make butylene, and then through metathesis, convert ethylene and butylene into propylene.

The cost of the plant is staggering for a what amounts to semi-works scale production of polypropylene. However, Rui Chammas, executive vice president for polymers at Braskem, says that bio-based polymers have a completely different value proposition than regular polymers. “We are not in competition with fossil polymers,“ he says. He is also quick to add that 70% of the output from the polyethylene is already under contract.

Manoel Carnauba Cortez, vice president of Braskem’s based chemical unit, says the company also has its its sights set on another ethanol derivative, ethylene glycol. “We may be an ethylene supplier for EO production in the near future,“ he said.

There is strong interest in bio-based ethylene glycol. Coca Cola is beginning to use ethylene glycol as a co-monomer in its PET bottles, likely sourced from Asia. Japanese trading firm Toyota Tsusho, which incidentally is a green polyethylene distributor for Braskem, recently formed a Taiwanese joint venture to make ethanol-based ethylene glycol.

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